Edge Chamfering
Author: 2007-06-20 09:02:09 From:
|
 |
In this tutorial I will explain edge chamfering and show you how to create really nice smooth objects using a Box, Chamfer and MeshSmooth.
|
 |
Edge chamfering is used most times to keep the angle of a corner edge that has been smoothed. In this tutorial we will work with a cube. First let's create one.
|
 |
| Under the Modify panel change the number of Length Segs to 3. To see the edged faces, press F4. |
|
 |
To make the Cube editable, convert it to an Editable Poly (Right-click > Convert To: > Convert to Editable Poly).
|
 |
Add a MeshSmooth modifier to our object. Set the Iterations to 3. You can see now that our object has a barrel shape. That's because it has been smoothed according to its geometry. If it was a 1x1x1 cube, the smoothed shape would've been close to a sphere, but the 2 extra segments make the difference in this case.
|
 |
| Time to actually chamfer some edges, right? I had to change the colour of my object so you can see better what I'm about to do. Go back to our object, switch to Edge editing mode (hit "2" on the keyboard) and select the edges that define the front face. Hit the Chamfer Dialog button and enter 0.1 in the Chamfer Amount box. Hit OK. Not a big difference, right? But when you go back to the top modifier (MeshSmooth) your object looks now much different. The edge you chamfered created a much sharper edge and an almost flat face on the smoothed object. |
|
 |
Let's continue working with this object. Back to the geometry level (under the MeshSmooth modifier) go to Edge mode again and select the 4 side edges of our cube's frontmost section (for the Wireframe mode hit F3). Chamfer them 0.1 units and have a look at the smoothed result. The corner edges can be clearly seen in the smoothed geometry.
|
 |
Be careful with Chamfer. It can really mess up your geometry if you have some modeling left to do. This is why it is best to do all general modeling BEFORE actually starting chamfering edges. In this case I tried to extrude the faces in the middle. You can notice that the extrusion is clean to the back of the object, where no chamfering was done and it's messy to the front.
|
 |
| Let's go back to our cube prior to any chamfering being applied to its edges. Go to Poly selection mode ("4" key for shortcut). Select the polygons in the middle (use F3 to toggle wireframe On/Off). |
|
 |
Hit the Extrude Dialog button, change Extrusion Type to Local Normal, set the Extrusion Height to -10 and hit OK.
|
 |
Go to Edge mode. Select all edges (Ctrl+A). In the Top View deselect the middle row of vertical edges. In the Front View deselect the angled edges. Chamfer the selected edges 0.1 units. Can you guess what shape will have the smoothed object?
|
 |
| Well I can't tell you what this is but it looks nice and smooth and has a tubular middle. I guess you can imagine something this would resemble to. |
|
 |
As a final exercise of this tutorial, let's create a pair of dumbells. Go back to the unchamfered cube and select all edges that form squares parallel to the front view. You can do that by selecting all edges and then deselect all vertical edges in the Top View and all angled edges in the Front View.
|
 |
| Go to MeshSmooth level of our object. You have just created a dumbell. Press "W" to go to the Move Tool, then Shift + Drag our object to create a clone. There you have it: a pair of dumbells! |
discuss this topic to forum
